Lewis Hamilton dominates Hungarian Grand Prix to equal Michael Schumacher record

Lewis Hamilton has equalled Michael Schumacher's record for the most victories on a single circuit by winning the 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix. Hamilton's eighth win at the Hungaroring equals Schumacher's total set at Magny-Cours. Valtteri Bottas couldn't complete a second one-two for Mercedes in two weeks after Max Verstappen hung on to second place in a last-lap battle. 

Despite crashing on his way to the grid and causing the Red Bull mechanics a pre-race headache, Verstappen managed to clinch second place and hang on using old tyres compared to his Mercedes rival. The Dutchman climbed from seventh to third on the opening lap.

Hamilton controlled the race from start to finish and was never challenged for the lead. The six-time world champion lapped both Alexander Albon (5th) and Sebastian Vettel (6th) to showcase the Mercedes dominance.  

Lance Stroll backed up a positive Saturday by finishing fourth but his Racing Point teammate struggled to a seventh-place finish after losing out in a double-stack pitstop. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc missed out on points for the second weekend in a row. 

Damage before lights out

On his way to the grid, Verstappen slipped on the wet track and ended up in the barriers with a broken front wing. The Red Bull Racing mechanics rushed to change the parts on the front-left suspension while the car was sitting on the grid. The job was completed with about 20 seconds to spare.

Both Haas cars decided to pit for slick tyres at the end of the formation lap while all others started on the intermediates.

Bottas, who appeared to have moved before lights out, dropped four places on the opening lap. Verstappen jumped both Ferrari cars and climbed from seventh to third. Within three laps, Hamilton had generated an eight-second lead from Stroll.

Early drama in the pits

The track dried quickly and was demanding dry tyres on lap four. Almost all cars pitted sparking chaos in the pit lane. Vettel lost out as Ferrari couldn't find a gap to release their German driver.

Williams released Nicholas Latifi into the path of a McLaren. Latifi bumped Carlos Sainz's front wing, ending up with a puncture and a five-second penalty for an unsafe Williams release.

Grosjean and Magnussen found themselves in third and fourth after their early pitstop gamble paid off.

On lap 18, the battle for seventh took centre stage. Albon was asking Red Bull for some more engine power to overtake Leclerc and move away from Vettel. On the home straight and into turn one, Albon moved ahead.

Engine and tyre issues...?

Pierre Gasly became the first driver retirement due to a fire in the back of his Alpha Tauri.

Hamilton was cruising ahead with a 12-second lead but reported an engine problem on the team radio. The Mercedes team told Hamilton to alter settings on his steering wheel.

The threat of rain came on lap 25. Teams were keen to keep their drivers on the track to wait for the rain despite several claims of grip loss up and down the grid.

The rain threat never materialised, and Vettel was the first to pit for the hard tyres on lap 31. Bottas undercut Stroll to move into the podium places. Meanwhile, the Haas drivers couldn't keep up with the pace of the top 10 and dropped down the leaderboard. 

Chasing again

Despite Bottas catching Verstappen, Mercedes decided to pit the Finnish driver again on lap 50. To close the gap, Bottas needed to record lap times of 1:18.5. Heading into the final stages, Bottas still had a nine-second gap to close. 

With two laps to spare, Bottas moved into DRS range. But the chequered flag beat Bottas and Verstappen held on to second place.